


High School Superheroes: Rise Of The Teachers

by TheHyperWriter



Category: Paladins: Champions Of The Realm (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School(?), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Dialogue Heavy, F/M, Karne is frickin' EVIL!!!, Magic, Mal'Damba says shit even I don't understand, Minor Khan/Ash, Minor Original Character(s), Platonic Relationships, Pop Culture References lmao, Secret Identity Fails?, Slow Plot Burn, Slow To Update, Strix is a good dad, Strix is edgy, Strix is the world's biggest dork, Tags May Change, The character's full names are headcanons of mine..., Undercover superheroes with families and normal teaching jobs..., Valera is a psychic, Why Did I Write This?, everyone is human, i n t e r e s t i n g
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-02-13 09:16:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21491938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHyperWriter/pseuds/TheHyperWriter
Summary: "There's no such thing as a hero; only heroic acts and deeds."As some say: "Real heroes don't wear capes; they teach."These teachers do both.
Relationships: Khan/Ash (Paladins), Strix/Original Female Character, Viktor/Original female character
Kudos: 2





	1. Origins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mr. Aves "Strix" Stricker is many things; a math teacher, a Were-Owl and a superhero, to name a few.

A man in a brown feathered cowl ran through the dark across a rooftop towards some masked figures in black. He vaulted over a rooftop generator and charged towards them just as a helicopter swung into view. He pulled out a handgun from a holster on his belt, pushing himself to run faster. As he came closer, he fired into the group of men in front of him and prayed that he hit at least one. The familiar sound of bullets piercing flesh and their cries of pain gave him answers. He barreled straight into them and flung one off the edge of the building, turning to swing his fist at another, sufficiently bashing the guy hard enough to break his jaw. When they were all distracted by their various injuries, he fired a grappling gun at the departing helicopter and held on tight as he was pulled through the air. 

“FINISH EM’ OFF, VIKTOR!” He cried over the deafening whir of helicopter propellers. 

Right on cue, a huge grey wolf lunged at the men on the roof from behind the generator, growling and baying for their blood. 

The cowled man smiled before hoisting himself up into the helicopter’s cargo cabin and headed for the cockpit. The two men in the pilot cockpit stood up in surprise as he turned to face them and drew out a Bowie knife. He smirked, 

“So… you ready to die, chaps?” He said.

He raced towards them and swiftly gored the knife through one pilot’s chest, before hurling the other out of the windshield, shielding his face from the flying glass shards with one arm. Without a pilot, the helicopter began to fly out of control and swerved into a nearby building. Before it hit, he jumped out of the hole in the glass windscreen and morphed into a large horned owl; feathered cowl and all. 

He flew up to the rooftop where the wolf named Viktor was waiting and swiveled his head to watch as the wolf put its front paws forward and melded into the form of a man, all traces of fur and snout disappearing. 

“You did good back there, Strix.” He said to the owl in a thick Russian accent, “Nice one!”

Strix hooted quietly and shifted back into human form, “You too, Vik.” He grinned and took a seat on the floor near the mutilated corpses of the men in black from earlier.

“We should report to H.Q. Val’s gonna be worried.” He said, standing up and putting a finger to his ear,

“This is Night Owl and Lone Wolf reporting. Our bank robbery prevention mission has been successful! Come in, Eternal Paladin…”

A familiar voice crackled in with a burst of static, 

_ “This is Eternal Paladin.Your pickup is on the way.”_

* * *

_ Years Ago… _

Strix walked into the bland, grey room, where a blonde, bespectacled young woman with a strange silver headpiece on her forehead gestured for him to sit in a chair in front of her desk. 

“Hello, Mr…” She peered at the copy of his resume in her hand, “... Stricker--.”

“No please. ‘Strix’ is just fine, Miss Vass!” He smiled politely and sat down. 

“Alright, Mr. Strix. I think we both know why you’re here.” She said, ruffling the papers of his resume in her hands.

“I’m... looking for a job?”

Miss Vass nodded, “Yes. I’ve looked through your accomplishments. It says here you’re an ex-military sniper who was deployed in Afghanistan for a year in 2002.”

“Most horrific months of my life…” Strix muttered, making sure he was quiet enough for her to not hear anything.

“You were also a high school teacher for 2 years after your military retirement, were you not?” She continued, “You were fired for a… vermin infestation? How did that happen?” She laughed. 

“Actually, the “vermin” was _ me _…” He said sheepishly, “You see, I’m what you’d call a “Were-Owl”.”

“Turning during the full moon, or no?” She said, surprisingly calm after this revelation. 

“Oh no! That would be horrible!” Strix chuckled, “I do it at will.”

“Care to demonstrate?”

“Sure.” He stood up and steadied himself. He stretched out his arms and took a deep breath. He felt his bones shift and rearrange themselves as well as feathers starting to burst from his skin. He looked up at her from the floor moments later, where he stood as an abnormally large owl. He screeched and flew up to land on the chair seat before quickly turning back into his human self. 

“How’s that?” He folded his arms, “That something you can deal with?”

“Certainly! I’ve dealt with many powers. Yours is no different!” She turned to the side to adjust her glasses, where files were arranging themselves in the file cabinet. Strix found that he didn’t mind that the files were floating around in the air and sorting themselves. But he couldn’t resist asking,

“You doing something with those files, Miss?” 

Immediately, the files stopped moving and fell to the floor. 

“What files?” She said innocently, “Are you alright, Mr Strix? You seem to be hallucinating!”

Strix sighed. He knew she was lying. Her eyes had snapped to the books when they stopped moving; she was definitely making them float. 

“Never mind.” He said. 

“So, I’ve been considering your application for a while, Mr Strix and, pray tell, what exactly _ did _ you teach when you were a teacher?” Miss Vass said, “I need to know before I make a decision.”

“Ah! Well…” Strix trailed off. It had been so long since he thought of his teaching job. “I think I taught math…” He concluded, “Got any room for a math teacher, or something? I hear you operate a school.”

She peered at him through the lenses of her glasses and for a split second, he saw her pupils flash bright blue. 

“I run a school for, shall we say: _ gifted _ youths, Mr Strix.” She said, “I aim to find teaching staff who are able to handle high stress levels on a nearly daily basis. Since you have military experience, I’d say you’d have no trouble with that!”

“Gifted kids, huh? Any chance they’d be--?”

“Like you? Yes. They do have various abilities. Some may be hazardous to the classroom environment.” Miss Vass remarked, “But they need an education, Mr Strix. Therefore, I think you’re very appropriate for this job! You’re hired!”  
  
_ Well, that escalated quickly. _He stood up, thanked her and turned to leave. Before he walked out of the door, he looked back at her and said,

“By the way, how do I address you?”

She stood up and walked out from behind her desk. That was when he noticed she was floating an inch or two above the ground, and that she had no chair behind her desk. 

“Call me: Valera.” 

Just as Strix stepped out of the door, he heard her voice in his head. 

_ “I’m also psychic. Have a good day, Mr Strix!” _


	2. Sorcery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What can superpowers do against magic? 
> 
> Strix and his colleagues find themselves up against a terrifying, but familiar new evil: sorcery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my God! It's FINALLY done!
> 
> Here it is!
> 
> Enjoy!

Viktor and Strix sauntered into the lab, where they were met with a woman fiddling with a gargantuan supercomputer that took up the entire wall in front of them. Her hair was black, cut into a bob with a red streak in her fringe.

“Well, you most certainly took your time!” She exclaimed, not looking up from her screens, “Valera’s out! Probably won’t be back till morning!”

“Cut us some slack, Vivian!” Viktor folded his arms, “We were across town!” 

Vivian rolled her eyes and casually intercepted a call on her monitor. It was from Valera. 

_ “BLOODY HELL!” _Valera was yelling over a soundscape of chaos. Her face could be seen on the large main screen mounted on the wall. The image was fuzzy and the audio was punctuated with glitches now and then. 

_ “Vivan? You... there? Are they back yet?” _Valera looked worried. She had a visible wound on her forehead that trickled blood down her face. 

“The shapeshifters are back. No need to worry!” Vivian said, swiping strands of her black hair away from her eyes, “What should I--?”

“Get them over to the city square! Grohk and I need backup!” Valera cried as the video jumped and stuttered, before cutting to static. 

Vivian looked back at them knowingly and stood up. She reached for an assault rifle that was leaning against one of the computer’s many mainframes,

“I’m coming with you to make sure you two get out of this alive.” She said, breezing past them towards the door, “Let’s leave! Hurry!”

Strix and Viktor tried their hardest not to roll their eyes. Vivan could be a little overbearing sometimes.

* * *

Strix had opted to fly to their destination. Wind hit his face as he glided silently through the night on swift wings. The other two had opted to take Vivian’s car, which he could see on the ground below. They were keeping steady pace with him as he soared ahead. He wondered what was the trouble. Usually Valera could handle most threats with her ability to call on almost every psionic ability in existence. Was this one really no different?

He touched down beside Viktor, who had shifted into his lupine form. Vivian had run off without them. When Strix morphed back to get a good view of the scene, his eyes widened. Everything was chaos. Civilians lay injured or dead among pieces of debris from the destroyed buildings in the area. The air was charged with static; evidence of Grohk’s shocking presence. Strix scowled and pulled out his handgun. He’d left his sniper rifle at home. An encounter like this needed him to be on-site.

“Come on, Vik. Let’s go see what the problem is…” He raced into the confusion with Viktor following at his heel.

He could see Valera and Grohk in the distance, occupied with battling an army of strange shimmering humanoids. They glowed a dark blue, with no visible facial features, and they dragged themselves around limply like zombies. They would only start to become more humanlike when faced with attackers, snapping into a stumbling run. Valera was floating high in the air, telekinetically hurling cement blocks and other large chunks of debris around at any foe she could see. Grohk, on the other hand, was blasting his enemies with torrents of crackling electricity, throwing himself at them with pure spite. Every time Strix saw him unleash some lightning, he felt the hairs on his skin stand on end. A psychic forcefield put up and maintained by Valera surrounded the site, protecting throngs of terrified civilians on the sidewalk from the onslaught. 

They ran up to the scene of the battle and threw themselves straight into the action. Viktor howled and immediately went for the nearest humanoid thing(?), which on closer inspection, seemed to be made purely of solid energy. But much to Strix’s surprise, his lycanthrope friend managed to tear apart the thing’s throat as easily as if he were ripping apart a human being. 

Strix decided to try it out for himself.

He ran up to one and slammed his fist into its face, later finishing it off with a shot from his pistol. But when one fell, he was immediately faced with 2 more. He tried his best to defend himself but they managed to score hits on him. It hurt. The pain reminded him of when he was shot during his time in the military. He didn’t want to think about it. Instead, he let out his frustration on the two mooks that hit him, ramming his gun into their chests and firing off a shot straight through.

Things escalated quickly. 

He reached to his belt to grab his Bowie knife from its sheath but found himself grabbing air. He swore, remembering he had left it stuck in some guy’s forehead in the helicopter cockpit from the fight earlier tonight. He spied a large shard of glass on the ground and looked at the humanoids. He smiled as he connected the dots.

“Looks like it’s time to improvise…” He muttered. 

He seized the glass shard and began to use it like a knife, plunging it into any blue man-thing he came across then firing off his gun into their heads. He didn’t bother about the glass slicing into the flesh of his bare palm. Despite his best efforts, Strix noticed that they seemed to be getting stronger. Now, it took more than a stab to the chest and a shot to the head to bring one down as he progressed forward. Dread settled in his stomach when he found himself faced with 5 of them. He took a step back to find that he was surrounded.

“Well, shit. I’m cornered by angry giant Smurfs.”

Electricity whipped through the air and burned the blue bipeds to a crisp as Grohk landed beside him, lightning fizzing from his body and illuminating his hands and eyes, and sparking across his skin. Grohk looked disheveled. His brassy hair was sticky with blood from a gash in his scalp and his black rectangle glasses were cracked, but he was still fighting relentlessly, refusing to give up despite his injuries. He glanced at Strix, barely seeing him but acknowledging his presence,

“Keep close. They’re becoming tougher than ever! And smarter too!” He said, his voice more raspy than usual from exhaustion. 

“I’ve got a better idea, Gannon.” Strix growled, and moved to shapeshift, feeling his skin burst into feathers. He soared into the air moments later, flying towards Valera. He screeched to get her attention. She turned and noticed him, stretching out her arm to give him a place to land. Her blonde hair was matted with blood from her forehead wound and she appeared to be focusing on many things at once. Her voice creeped into his head, evident that she could read his mind,

_ “Thank God you’re here, Strix!” _Her voice had a slightly echoey quality, filling his head and drowning out the rest of his thoughts.

_ “What the HELL is going on Valera!” _He thought, knowing she would hear him. 

_ “Strix, hear me out…” _ He heard her say, _ “You’re fighting magical beings!” _

_ “WHAT THE FU-?!” _

She cut him off, _ “I’m not kidding! They’re being created by a totem in the centre of the site!” _

_ “Look, what is this, Valera? Are we facing a Minecraft spawner, or something?” _Strix glared at her, reminded of that blocky video game his son would talk about from time to time. 

_ “Come on, Aves! Stick with me! Torvald and ‘Damba use magic too! Dammit! Are you blind?” _Her voice cried. 

Strix shook his head violently, feeling a migraine coming on. He didn’t think he would be able to keep up this conversation much longer. He wasn't exactly well-versed with things like this. He decided to spend the last of his mental stamina on a few more words:

_ “Well, I could use some help.” _He took off after, scouring the site for Vivian and Viktor. 

He felt his headache fade once Valera left his mental space. It was a relief.

He found the two of them fighting together; with Vivian blasting down as many of those creatures as she could with her assault rifle while Viktor, who stood in the form of some humanoid wolf, slashed at any one that came too close with his sharp claws, snarling with his teeth bared. Strix landed near them and shifted back, pulling out his gun and beginning to fire away. 

Vivian noticed him first,

“You certainly took your time, Aves!” She snapped, shouting over the sound of her machine gun. 

“I didn’t know where you people were!” He shot back. 

“GODDAMMIT! SHUT UP AND JUST KEEP SHOOTING!” 

Strix turned to fire his pistol again, but only felt the sad click of an empty clip. Out of ammunition. 

“Fuck.”

Vivian stared at him as she chucked aside another empty clip to reload. She only had enough time to say, “Oh! What now, Night Owl!” before falling to her knees in agony, a length of steel wire having been gored through her upper arm by one of their attackers. They _were_ getting intelligent, and were also learning how to improvise weapons too? Strix rushed to aid her, screaming for Viktor to back them up.

_ My God! If only we had a Pyrokinetic... _he thought.

“That’s. IT…!” She forced her words through clenched teeth, “I’m contacting the magic nutjobs back at base!” 

Strix yanked out the metal wire from her arm and chucked it aside, tearing the cleanest strip of cloth he could scrounge from his cowl to stop the blood. It was a bad wound. The wire was rusty too, meaning Viv would need a tetanus shot. She didn’t seem to bother, though, as she was too busy trying to operate her intercom with one hand. When she finally got it to work, she started to yell,

“TORVALD! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE! BRING THE WITCHDOCTOR ALONG WITH YOU! DO IT _ NOW _!”


	3. My Name Is Karne

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vivian reveals her powers and a villain emerges.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YAY! IT'S DONE!
> 
> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
> 
> Oh yea, by the way, I'm open to constructive feedback! Lemme know how I can get better in the comments down below!
> 
> :D

“You should have told me you weren’t going to fly back home.”

Strix opened his eyes. They were bloodshot. He didn’t realise just how exhausted he was. It was like fighting was finally taking its toll on his old body. His torn feathered cowl lay folded in his lap and his clothes were powdered grey and black from the dust and debris. He was too tired to think about how he was dirtying the seat of Vivian’s Mercedes. 

“How the Hell are you still driving, Viv? You just got gored through the arm.” He said, stifling a yawn. 

“I’m more concerned about how you’re destroying the leather of my car seat.”

Strix pulled out his phone to give his wife a call, only to find that he had 30 missed calls from his son. 

“Goddammit. Rodney’s staying up late again!”

“Aves, the kid’s 17. He’s graduating high school this year! You’ll have to let him go sometime.” Vivian swerved to avoid a lone car on the mostly empty road and angrily slammed her hand - the one that had her bandaged wound - on the horn. She winced in pain and attempted not to make it obvious. 

Strix sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, before raising his phone to his ear to call his son back. He was answered almost immediately,

_ “Dad! Where were you?! You were supposed to come back at 11!” _

“I’m coming home now. Is your mom losing her mind?” 

_ “She… she was. She’s asleep now.” _

“Look, can you wake her up and tell her I’ll be home in 10?”

_ “Sure, Dad.” _

“Also, you better sleep soon, son. It’s late.”

_ “Ok. I’ll go to sleep now, then. Bye, Dad.” _

“See ya, kiddo.”

The call ended with a click. Strix put his phone back in his pocket and closed his eyes again. He needed to think. There was something about that fight from earlier that just wasn’t right. Those humanoids made from magic felt like they jumped out of an RPG game. It was hilarious and very ridiculous. The person who made them must be a very huge RPG fan. 

He heard Vivian speak, interrupting his thoughts.

“Do you know I have powers, Strix?”

“What?” His eyes snapped open again. For as long as he knew her, Vivian never showed any signs of any supernatural abilities. She had just been a young graduate from a prestigious college with a psychology doctorate and an English major. “Tell me about it?” He said.

He saw her smile a little as she said, “I was born with hyper intuition. My abilities aren’t very versatile. I’m only limited to mechanical and psychological intuition. But it’s a power nonetheless.” She said this with obvious pride. 

Strix found himself smiling. Her little bit of pride reminded him of himself with his own abilities. 

“You know what? I think we should all be proud of our talents… no matter what they are.” He said. 

“I most certainly agree.” 

* * *

A man sat in an armchair next to a crackling fire, examining a large tome in his hands. He flipped through the pages and suddenly froze, staring in bewilderment at the page he was on. 

“What?” He gripped the book, his hands tense and shaking. 

His face became twisted with rage as he bolted up and flung the book across the room. 

“Why does the Book of Futures do this to me?!” He fell back into his chair and tore at his already messy brown hair in frustration, “There was no way they could have dealt with the summoning totem that easily!” 

He had it all so perfect… it was all lined up for them - for _ her _ \- to fall!

“Valera, you FRUSTRATE me! Just when I had your friends all lined up and ready to die, you somehow pulled through anyway!” He screamed to no one in particular, “You and your magic wielders have less skill and experience! There is no way you could have done what you just did!?”

He stopped, hope dawning on his face, and ran to pull another book from the piles of tomes littering the carpet. He had been up for two days without a wink of sleep, spending hours focusing his mind completely on channeling his power. The last 2 hours were the most frantic hours of his life. He had his perspective split into a thousand different viewpoints. Valera and her friends had fought like devils, making many of those said perspectives blink out into darkness. 

It didn't matter. He just opened up more channels to make up for the ones that had been taken out. 

Everything was perfect until they destroyed his main channel. Maybe he shouldn’t have structured it like an actual totem… it would have made it less obvious and more difficult to destroy. He knew Valera must have poked into his mind at some point. He could have sworn he felt her presence in his head.

He flipped through the book in his hands, glancing through the pages until he struck gold. It was an ancient spell; at least a century old. It would give him limitless magical energy - 

But at the cost of his sanity. 

“Argh! What do I have to lose?!” He cried, “As long as I remember my name, I can stay almost untouchable!” 

_ My name is Karne, _He told himself over and over again, _My name is Karne, my name is Karne..._

_I will never forget!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooh! Why's Karne's name so important to him? And what the Hell did Valera do to make him so mad?
> 
> All will be revealed in time. :)


	4. Another Day...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... today Rise of The Teachers is getting a double update! This chapter is a bit of a short one. I promise the next one will be longer!
> 
> Tell me what you think in the comments below!

His noisy class was getting on his nerves. Strix swallowed a mouthful of water from his mug and slammed his palm on the teacher’s desk, narrowly dodging a flying pencil that almost hit him in the eye. His students stopped their chatter, dropping whatever they were doing to fix their eyes on him. The thrown pencil had impaled itself into the chalkboard on the wall behind him.

“Ok, look. I gave you all 5 minutes to settle down.” He sighed, “How did it extend to 15, huh?”

No one answered. 

“Alright. I’m not going to keep lecturing. We have a lot of stuff to go through today...”

He shuffled the pile of papers on his desk, knowing what he was going to say next would probably make his students object.

He went on, handing out the worksheets as he strolled down the rows, “...because, if you remembered what I said last week, we would be having a test on the basics of general relativity today. Hope you folks studied! This test won’t be easy. At all!” He passed out the final copy and said the fateful words,

“Good luck! You may begin… now!”

Strix sat at his desk and massaged his temples as his students groaned in annoyance. He was on patrol with Viktor again tonight. It was bound to be another evening of making their city's crime rates drop hellishly fast in a single night. 

He had to ask Valera later about his tiring work rate.

And was it him? Or did he have a feeling that something would go horrendously wrong today? Last night's fight was hard. He wondered whether it'll be something similar today - and he would go home at 4 A.M feeling like he had just been punched in the face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How are you all doing in quarantine? I hope things will get better for all of us! 
> 
> Stay safe!
> 
> ~ Hyper


End file.
